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Made to Stick Framework

A framework for crafting ideas and messages that are understood, remembered, and have lasting impact. Based on decades of research into why some ideas survive and others die.

Core Principle

The Curse of Knowledge is the single greatest barrier to effective communication. Once we know something, we can't imagine not knowing it. This makes us bad at explaining our ideas to others.

The foundation: Sticky ideas aren't born — they're made. The SUCCESs framework provides six principles that make any idea more memorable and impactful.

Scoring

Goal: 10/10. When reviewing or creating messaging (copy, presentations, campaigns, onboarding), rate 0-10 based on SUCCESs principles. A 10/10 means the message is simple, surprising, concrete, credible, emotional, and wrapped in a story; lower scores indicate forgettable communication. Always provide current score and improvements to reach 10/10.

The SUCCESs Framework

Six principles that make ideas stick:

S - Simple
U - Unexpected
C - Concrete
C - Credible
E - Emotional
S - Stories

Not a checklist — a toolkit. Not every sticky idea uses all six. But the stickiest ideas tend to use most of them.

1. Simple

Core concept: Find the core of the idea and share it compactly.

Simple ≠ dumbed down. Simple means finding the essential core and expressing it in a compact way. It means ruthless prioritization.

The Commander's Intent:

• Military term: If everything goes wrong, what ONE thing must we accomplish?
• For messaging: If people remember ONE thing about your product, what should it be?

The inverted pyramid:

• Lead with the most important thing
• Add detail in order of decreasing importance
• Readers who stop anywhere still got the core

Techniques for simplicity:

Technique	How It Works	Example
Core message	Strip to the essential	Southwest: "THE low-fare airline"
Analogy	Explain new via known	"It's like Uber for dog walking"
Generative	Core idea that generates behavior	"Names, names, names" (local newspaper motto)
Prioritize	Force-rank what matters	"If you say 3 things, you say nothing"